When using the local strategy in passport.js, I'm attempting to access req.user to get the current user ID for storing recipes in the database. However, I'm facing an issue with deserialization in the passport.js file within my app's config setup. Every time I navigate to the /api/saveRecipe route, the req.user seems to disappear.
Important Note: The authentication process is being handled on the backend server while using React on the frontend.
Below is a snippet of my server.js file:
The main problem lies in req.user being accessible after calling passport.authenticate('local'), but it somehow becomes unavailable once the api/saveRecipe route is triggered.
I've done some research on this topic on various platforms like Stack Overflow, and it seems that the issue often relates to the order of setup in the server file. Even though I've reviewed my setup thoroughly, I still can't pinpoint the exact mistake...
const express = require("express");
const bodyParser = require("body-parser");
const session = require("express-session");
const routes = require("./routes");
// Requiring passport as we've configured it
let passport = require("./config/passport");
const sequelize = require("sequelize");
// const routes = require("./routes");
const app = express();
var db = require("./models");
const PORT = process.env.PORT || 3001;
// Define middleware here
app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }));
app.use(express.json());
// passport stuff
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false }));
app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(express.static("public"));
// We need to use sessions to keep track of our user's login status
// app.use(cookieParser('cookit'));
app.use(
session({
secret: "cookit",
name: "cookit_Cookie"
})
);
app.use(passport.initialize());
app.use(passport.session());
// Serve up static assets (usually on heroku)
if (process.env.NODE_ENV === "production") {
app.use(express.static("client/public"));
}
// the view files are JavaScript files, hence the extension
app.set('view engine', 'js');
// the directory containing the view files
app.set('pages', './');
// Add routes, both API and view
app.use(routes);
// Syncing our database and logging a message to the user upon success
db.connection.sync().then(function() {
console.log("\nDB connected\n")
// Start the API server
app.listen(PORT, function() {
console.log(`🌎 ==> API Server now listening on PORT ${PORT}!`);
});
});
module.exports = app;Here is a portion of my passport.js code:
//we import passport packages required for authentication
var passport = require("passport");
var LocalStrategy = require("passport-local").Strategy;
//
//We will need the models folder to check passport against
var db = require("../models");
// Telling passport we want to use a Local Strategy. In other words, we want login with a username/email and password
passport.use(
new LocalStrategy(
// Our user will sign in using an email, rather than a "username"
{
usernameField: "email",
passwordField: "password",
passReqToCallback: true
},
function(req, username, password, done) {
// console.log(`loggin in with email: ${username} \n and password: ${password}`)
// When a user tries to sign in this code runs
db.User.findOne({
where: {
email: username
}
}).then(function(dbUser) {
// console.log(dbUser)
// If there's no user with the given email
if (!dbUser) {
return done(null, false, {
message: "Incorrect email."
});
}
// If there is a user with the given email, but the password the user gives us is incorrect
else if (!dbUser.validPassword(password)) {
return done(null, false, {
message: "Incorrect password."
});
}
// If none of the above, return the user
return done(null, dbUser);
});
}
)
);
// serialize determines what to store in the session data so we are storing email, ID and firstName
passport.serializeUser(function(user, done) {
console.log(`\n\n serializing ${user.id}\n`)
done(null, user.id);
});
passport.deserializeUser(function(id, done) {
console.log(`\n\n DEserializing ${id}\n`)
db.User.findOne({where: {id:id}}, function(err, user) {
done(err, user);
});
});
// Exporting our configured passport
module.exports = passport;const router = require("express").Router();
const controller = require("../../controllers/controller.js");
const passport = require("../../config/passport");
router.post(
"/login",
passport.authenticate("local", { failureRedirect: "/login" }),
function(req, res) {
console.log(`req body -${req.body}`);
res.json({
message: "user authenticated",
});
}
);
router.post("/saveRecipe", (req, res) => {
console.log(req.user)
if (req.isAuthenticated()) {
controller.saveRecipe;
} else {
res.json({ message: "user not signed in" });
}
});
module.exports = router;